Where to Stay in Nokia, Pirkanmaa

Nokia is known as an industrial mill town of Pirkanmaa, in south-western Finland, built on the rapids that drove its riverside works. The town grew from the works, and its working past is kept at the Nokian työläiskotimuseot, the old workers' homes turned museum. Industry made the place.

The parish church of Nokian kirkko stands over the centre, the manor chapel of Nokian kartanokappeli marks the old estate, and the Nokian kirkkomuseo and the Hinttalan kotiseutumuseo hold the heritage of this corner of Pirkanmaa.

The parish church of Nokian kirkko stands over the centre of the town, the chief landmark of this Pirkanmaa industrial centre. Estate and works left their own marks. The manor chapel of Nokian kartanokappeli recalls the old estate by the river, while the Nokian työläiskotimuseot keep the homes of the mill workers who built the town.

Heritage gathers in the museums too, at the Nokian kirkkomuseo and the Hinttalan kotiseutumuseo, and the Nokian palloiluhalli draws crowds to its arena in south-western Finland.

Nokia's history turns on the river and the works it powered. Before the modern town, the land here was an old estate and parish of Pirkanmaa, in south-western Finland, its life set around the manor and the chapel now kept as the Nokian kartanokappeli. Water ran the mills.

The rapids on the river drove riverside works that drew labour to the riverbank, and the homes of those workers are preserved as the Nokian työläiskotimuseot, a record of the mill-town life that grew up around the factories. The modern town was chartered in the 20th century. Nokia was set on its own footing in 1922, its centre gathered around the parish church of Nokian kirkko as the industry on the river pulled houses, shops and people into a growing works town.

Factories shaped the streets. From estate and mill to a full industrial centre of Pirkanmaa, Nokia held to the river, its past now read in the Nokian kirkkomuseo, the Hinttalan kotiseutumuseo and the old workers' homes by the water.

Nokia lies on a river between the lakes of Pirkanmaa, in south-western Finland. The rapids that drove its works run through the centre, with the town spread along the riverbank and lakes and forests opening out across the wider municipality. Water shapes the town.

The riverside centre gathers around the Nokian kirkko, the old estate ground of the Nokian kartanokappeli stands nearby, and woods, lakes and scattered villages run back through this corner of south-western Finland toward the larger city of Pirkanmaa to the east.

Nokia carries the cool, four-season weather of inland Pirkanmaa, in south-western Finland, set among lakes and forest. Winters are long and snowy, frost binding the river and the surrounding lakes for months before the slow thaw of spring opens the water that drove the town's works. The summers turn warm and bright.

Long northern daylight warms the river valley and the woods through the short growing season around Nokia, the green months when the lakeshore cottages of Pirkanmaa fill before the snow returns.

Nokia sits on the roads and rail of Pirkanmaa, in south-western Finland, close to the larger city to the east. Trains and buses run the short line in from the regional centre, stopping near the riverside town around the Nokian kirkko. Travel in is quick.

Road carries most of the traffic, linking Nokia to the wider lakeland of Pirkanmaa, and drivers come on past the lakes and forests to the events at the Nokian palloiluhalli and the museums of the old works town.